How many scams have to make their way through Gainesville before its residents realize they shouldn't just look before they take an unforeseen financial leap?
Forget simply looking. We should step back with a pair of binoculars and stare a fiery hole of skepticism through any odd situations requiring bank account information or uncommonly large sums of money.
Everyone should employ the good ol' mantra that says, "If it's too good to be true, then it probably is."
Just in time for the holidays, the city is being ravaged by scams that, frankly, aren't even clever.
No one should be taken in by the grammatically inept e-mails from someone they've never met asking for money to help move them overseas. Who really wires money to someone they've never heard of?
We just want everyone to exercise the slightest bit of common sense.
Here's the Editorial Board's friendly tip of the day, courtesy of a dear friend: If someone from Nigeria offers you inexpensive capuchin monkeys via the Internet, but asks for payment through Western Union or some other wireless transfer service, something is terribly amiss.
Yes, this is a true story, and a friend of the Editorial Board's was taken in by it.
Please protect your wallets this holiday season. Blow your money on your loved ones, not disease-carrying primates.
